Excerpt from article: "The Nova Scotia government is defending its decision to allow five Cooke Aquaculture open-net pen fish farms to expand outside their existing lease and licence boundaries."
"On Jan. 12, [EcoJustice Lawyer Sarah McDonald] McDonald wrote to provincial Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell and Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, demanding action on "this egregious conduct" and a response by March 12."
"The province has not responded to McDonald's letter, but a spokesperson for the Fisheries Department sent CBC News a statement rejecting the insinuation that Cooke has more cages or fish in the water at the fish farms in question.
The five Kelly Cove Salmon sites under review have been allowed to continue regular operations on their sites until the amendment process is complete, but have not been permitted to make material changes to their operations including increases in size or production," the statement said.
Excerpts above from Article by:
Paul Withers | CBC News | Jan.19,2021
Link to full article here. Click on our FB post to link to the article and to comment.
Scroll down past our FB post below for more information from PLB related to this article and the Coffin Island site.
Coffin Island Site Boundary
As the above article states, DFA claims it has been allowing Cooke to operate outside their lease boundaries while amendments are under review but has not allowed them to increase number of pens or fish. Shown below are two maps from Kelly Cove Salmon's (Cooke) own boundary amendment application for Coffin Island dated March 2019 that we've over-layed on each other to illustrate the existing site boundary and proposed amendment.
The pink line is the current boundary, the yellow line is the proposed expanded boundary, the pen configuration within represents an increase to 20 net-pens (2 X 10) or, an additional 6 pens to an existing 14, as stated in the application. Cooke's is currently operating 14 net-pens at this site.
Looking at the pink square, its obvious to see how their 14 pens wouldn't possibly fit within the current lease area and would reflect an increase in pens and fish beyond its 'regular operations'. Additionally in summer 2019 Cooke's added an automated feed barge that operates 24/7, complete with lights and noise pollution.
The amendment application filed in March 2019 is still in the review phase, indefinitely awaiting referral to the ARB. There is no expiry date for applications or time limit on the review process. In the meantime, Cooke's have re-stocked this14 pen site. This, is 'regular operations'.